Manti Te’o reportedly covered up hoax in attempt to not distract Notre Dame

When Manti Te’o finally decides to come out and tell his side of the girlfriend hoax story, he will have a lot of explaining to do when it comes to the timeline of events. If he sticks with the story that he found out that Lennay Kekua didn’t exist when he received a phone call from her on Dec. 6 (months after she supposedly died of leukemia), how will Te’o explain the fact that he continued to pretend she was real on multiple occasions after that day?

Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick said on Wednesday that Te’o finally decided to come clean to some of his coaches and a few teammates on Dec. 26. According to TMZ, sources close to the star linebacker say he kept the lie going for 20 days to prevent it from becoming a distraction for the team.

But sources tell us … Manti didn’t tell his coaches about the hoax until Dec. 26 … because he thought it would be a huge distraction while the team prepared to face Alabama in the BCS Championship.

During the 20 days, we’re told Manti struggled over how to handle the situation … but eventually felt compelled to come clean to his coaches.

Whether you believe Te’o or not, it’s hard to argue with that reasoning. In retrospect it doesn’t make a difference since Alabama destroyed the Fighting Irish anyway, but look how big of a news story this has become. Had Te’o admitted to being duped prior to the BCS National Championship Game and told everyone that the most inspirational story of the calendar year was nothing but a hoax, there’s no way Notre Dame would have been able to focus on the game. Not that Te’o was able to focus anyway, which is probably why he played so horribly.